They were also familiar with those divinities’ servants (some of them utterly terrifying) and a whole host of other beings, spirits, and creatures that have survived under the comforting label of ‘folklore’ but at the time were very real. This question of reality is important because the Vikings did not believe in these things any more than someone today ‘believes in’ the sea. Instead they knew about them: all this was as much a natural part of the world as trees and rocks. That these beings could not be seen need not have been significant.
